An aspirant's several years search for Allah, made possible by His grace/mercy ,and not through any efforts of the seeker

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

125. The Most Famous Fakir
Of Egypt

The name of the most famous fakir of Egypt was Tahra Bey. He
had piercing eyes. He had a medical degree and could speak many languages. He
had been received by many kings and Signor Benito Mussolini. He was well known
for stabbing his body with arrows and knives, and be buried alive. Once he
permitted himself to be buried for twenty eight days. He was comfortable in
European or Arab dress. Many scientists and doctors had investigated his claims
and found them to be genuine. Here is what Brunton has to say about him:

“I, who have seen several of his feats done by half a dozen fakirs in
different parts of India and Africa, find no difficulty in believing them
possible; whereas knowing the man, I know also, that he actually does possess
the powers which he claims”

Brunton gathered a
small group of doctors and other professionals to watch his performance.

On the floor were
various articles to be used in his demonstrations. Every article was carefully
examined by the group.

Tahra Bey touched and pressed certain parts of his temple
and the nape of his neck. He seemed to suck air in his mouth. In a minute he
was entranced. At the same time he uttered a peculiar sudden cry. He went into
cataplexy. His body became rigid like a
board. He would have fallen to the floor, like a dead man, if his assistants
had not caught him.

His body was placed on scythe-like blades. A doctor checked
his pulse, it was 130.

A large block of stone weighing 90 kilogrammes
(approximately 198 pounds) was placed on his bare stomach. The assistant
showered blows upon the block with a hammer. Tahra Bey’s body remained rigid
and taut, never yielding an inch, as if he was made of iron. Eventually the
stone broke.

Tahra was then lifted up into a standing position, still
apparently unconscious. The doctors examined his body and did not find the
slightest mark from the scythe-like blades. He was then placed on a plank
studded with sharp nails. An assistant jumped over his body. When reexamined
there was no mark on his skin by the spikes!

Tahra Bey slowly came back to life. His eyes were fixed. He
inhaled air violently. He opened his mouth so wide that one could see his
tongue curled backwards. He brought the tongue forward with his hand.

Next, Tahra Bey allowed his cheeks to be pierced by hat pins.
They also ran thick skewers through his jaws. Tahra Bey was fully awake, and
did not elicit any sign of painfulness.

A doctor was allowed to plunge a large dagger into his
throat in front of the larynx.

Some of the doctors, who were skeptical, repeatedly checked
his pupils, in order to note whether they contracted or dilated. It was thus
possible to determine whether he had taken any drug which made him insensible
to pain. His eyes were quite normal.

When all these weapons were withdrawn there was not a single
drop of blood on his skin!

Doctors were so astonished that they jabbed more needles and
arrows in his face, shoulders and chest.

Tahra Bey then showed another power that he possessed. He
allowed to be stuck by a sharp knife in the chest. When knife was withdrawn
there was no blood. A doctor expressed a wish to see the blood flow to assure
himself that the fakir was really wounded. Tahra Bey then allowed the blood to
flow. It inundated his chest. When the doctor was satisfied, Tahra Bey stopped
all flow of blood by mere will power!

An assistant passed a
flaming torch along the entire length of the fakir’s leg. The audience heard
crackling of skin, but Tahra Bey’s face remained calm and composed!

The fakir announced, that this insensitivity to pain lasts
for twenty-five minutes

He also showed his power over a hen and a rabbit. He touched
some nerves and they became paralyzed, yet conscious. He then reversed the
condition to normal

The most important test of the evening came next. Resurrection.

The test conditions were such that there was no chance of
fraud.

Tahra Bey announced that he would be buried alive for exactly
one and a half hours.

A coffin was brought. It was carefully examined. The floor
of the apartment was checked for trap-doors. Still a rug was placed as a
precaution.

Tahra Bey induced auto-cataplexy in him, just as he had done
before.

He was examined by doctors. No breathing, no heartbeat!. He was like a dead man. There were no
signs of life. It would have been hard to tell the difference between him and a
dead body!

His assistants covered him completely with soft red sand.

After the allotted time, the sand was removed. He was put in
a chair. Slowly, he became normal.

He had no memory of what happened to him during the time he
was in the coffin.

What was the explanation of these amazing demonstrations?

Tricks, illusion and conjuring?

Magic? Just as the Egyptian who had thirty disembodied spirits
under his command, or the old magician of Egypt who made the white fowl be
killed by genii (blog 122)? Also the bombardment of the haunted house by bones
and stones by spirits.(blog 109)

Hypnotism. Like the French woman who could read while her
eyes were heavily taped (blog123) and did not show pain when stuck by a needle.
The wound was bloodless

Yoga? Like the three tricks performed by the Indian sadhu;
being buried alive, rope trick, and levitation. (Blog 124)

Miracles? There are twenty five miracles (supernatural
events) described in blog 104-7, performed by men and women of God.

The answer is none of the above!

Tahra Bey claimed himself to be a man of science. There was
nothing supernatural. He knew of certain laws of nature by which he could perform
these feats. They were little known psychic laws, but nonetheless, laws. He had
command over two secrets which enabled him to perform all his feats:

1.
Pressure on certain nerve centers of the body

2.
Ability to enter into cataleptic coma

When one is in cataleptic coma, heart and breathing, both,
stop. There is no flow of blood. Body becomes insensitive to pain (similar to a
modern operation under general anesthesia). To accelerate the healing of wounds
he did two things: he temporarily accelerated the blood flow and he raised the
temperature of the blood (which killed the microorganisms).

If a reader wants more details he can read it in the book (‘a
search in secret Egypt’, by Paul Brunton)

Thursday, March 20, 2014

124. Three Yogic Feats

Indra Devi ( blog 87-8, also see the list of books )
witnessed three amazing yogic feats. One day a man and his two children, aged
about ten came to the gate of her father’s house. The man was dressed in
ochre-colored robes. The children were possibly twins. He offered to show three
yogic feats, for a price:

The Sadhu said that he will be buried underground for twenty
four hours. They could cement it at the top and drive their car over it. He
would show the rope trick. The third trick consisted of levitation. A price was
agreed.

A pit was dug in
their garden. It was nine feet by four feet, and nine feet deep. The sadhu
uttered some mantra and descended in the pit. He put some cloth in his ears and
closed his eyes and nostrils with his fingers. He recited a mantra in Sanskrit
eleven times. His breathing became slower and slower till it was hardly
perceptible. The pit was filled with sand and earth. The top was cemented

Next day, the pit was opened and the earth removed. Sadhu was
lying there like a dead person, with a thin cloth covering his face. The two
children put drops of some green oil in his ears, nostrils and eyes, and also
rubbed his body with the oil.

After a few minutes the sadhu opened his eyes. He was helped
out of the pit. He looked a little bit tired but otherwise none the worse. He
drank some milk and appeared to recover almost completely. He left after
promising to perform the other two tasks the next day.

The sadhu returned the next evening with his two children. He
was a dark thin man. He took out a thick rope about thirty feet long from his
dirty cloth bag. He curled one end of the rope into a ball and threw it into
the sky. The rope swayed a little bit and then became stiff as if it was
hanging by a hook! The upper end of the rope was clearly visible. He then asked
his little boy to climb up the rope. The boy did it as if he was climbing a
palm tree. Suddenly his clothes started falling on the ground. He could still be
seen holding the rope by his hands and feet.

Sadhu shouted: “Ram, all you alright?”

The boy answered, “Yes, father I am alright.”

“Do you want to come back?”

“No, I plan to go higher”

Right before the spectator’s eyes the boy started vanishing.
Soon he disappeared. Now there was only the rope!

“Ram, where are you”

From a distance the child answered “Back to earth”

The sadhu started pulling down and winding the rope

The boy’s voice came from close, “Let me help you”

There were about fifty people watching, while the poor sadhu
with tattered clothes performed in the garden. No stage, no lights, no special
effects.

The girl came forwards. She was in a dirty, flimsy dress.
Her hair were tied up in a rag. She was no more than ten feet from the
audience. He took out a stick, about ten feet long, and let it stand behind
her. He passed his hand over her body and pressed her forehead with her
fingers, all the time reciting some mantras.

After about ten minutes, he touched the middle of her back
with the end of the stick, while he swept her up with the other hand. She lay
on the point of the stick about five feet above the ground!

He recited some more mantras and then abruptly removed the
stick from underneath the girl. The girl was now suspended in the air without
any support!

Indra’s husband passed his hand under her to make sure that
there was no support. Two other persons also investigated without touching the
girl, but there was no trickery.

After seven minutes he picked up the girl and laid her down
tenderly on the grass. She looked utterly exhausted and dazed. The sadhu gave
her some milk to drink and took his leave.

He was never seen again. It was said that he was a primitive
man______ a bhil from the forest___who probably went back to his
jungle hut.

Monday, March 17, 2014

123. Hypnotists

Brunton was well versed with hypnotism, as the following
incident illustrates. During his journalistic investigations on cults, he
became aware of an ex-clergyman, who had a forceful personality and possessed
strong hypnotic powers. He was using his powers for nefarious ends. One evening,
by chance, he met a woman on the street, who was a friend’s wife. She told him that
she was on her way to the hypnotist’s house, to spend a night with him. Brunton
examined her and found that she was completely under strong hypnotic influence.
Brunton felt it was his duty to de-hypnotize her and send her home, which he
did.

He consulted an Indian friend. He told him the incident, as
well as, his investigations about the ex-clergyman’s activities.

The Indian was outraged, and said that he would put a heavy
curse on the man. Brunton did not want to go that far, and asked to first give
an ultimatum to the man to leave the area immediately. The Indian said that the
ultimatum was fine, but he would also lay a curse on him. Which he did.

At the conclusion of the rite (for curse) Brunton left and
went to the pseudo-prophet’s house.

He found him in a small hall, with a large body of his
disciples.

There was a scene of indescribable confusion.

The hall was plunged in complete darkness. All the bulbs in
the house had suddenly exploded with the force of bombs. This occurred at
precisely the same time, when my Indian friend’s rite of cursing reached its
end point!

People were rushing to get out. Above all the din, harsh
voice of their master could be heard, a voice laden with fear and despair.

“The devil is here. This is the devil’s work”

He was lying prone on the platform floor. His followers had
heard him fall heavily on the platform.

Brunton gave him the ultimatum.

The man left. He died within one year in an obscure country
village.

In Cairo, there lived a French couple, Monsieur Ades and his
wife Madame Margueritte. He was gifted with hypnotic power. His wife was a good
hypnotic subject. Brunton investigated them and could find no trickery. Here is
a narration by Brunton about the demonstration. As a precaution Brunton had
also invited a British officer’s wife. All four sat around a table. There were
certain preliminary feats. Then came the final experiment. She was put in
second degree of hypnotic trance by her husband.

Madame Margueritte eyes were closely taped. The tape also
included eyebrows, eyelids and cheeks. As a further safeguard a thick red
velvet bandage was tied around her face and head. She could not see through the
eyes.

Ades asked us to select at random any passage from any book.

We marked a paragraph from a French book and laid the book
open for her.

Ades said in a firm voice:

“Now find the paragraph. Read it, and transcribe what you
read on a paper beside you”

Madame Margueritte started writing the passage, word for
word. She would write few words, and then turn her gaze at the book. She kept
on going alternately from the book to the page. It was clear that she could
read the page despite the heavy bandages! Brunton asked her husband to command
her to underline the second word of the second line and the third word of the
third line. She underlined both words correctly.

She was commanded to write with her left hand. Although not
ambidextrous, she performed the task with ease.

The visitor took the hand of the Madame Margueritte in her
hand and concentrated strongly upon the mental image of her husband. After a
short time Madame Margueritte described the character, capacities, temperament,
and even the physical appearance of the visitor’s husband! Most extraordinary
was her statement that he was a Government official.

Ades stuck a needle in her hand. The other end of the needle
was visible on the other side. Madame Margueritte did not feel any pain.

When the needle was withdrawn there was not a single drop of
blood visible on the skin or the needle.

Brunton requested Monsieur Ades to
explain the strange feats of hypnotism. He replied that our brain has enormous
unharnessed potential. There is a subconscious aspect of our mind. If one puts
the conscious state in suspension, by hypnotism, in certain subjects, the
subconscious state takes over. It can see or hear, without the aid of normal
eyes or ears. He (Ades) had put his wife in deep hypnotic trance, so her
conscious mind was suspended. One needs somebody with hypnotic power to put a
suggestible subject into a trance. Monsieur Ades had trained his magnetic
influence after several years of practice. In a similar vein, one needs a
subject who is naturally receptive to this magnetic force. One cannot hypnotize
a person who does not want to be hypnotized.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

122. Magicians

Brunton met his first real magician in India. His name was
Mahmoud Bey, and he was from Egypt. Brunton asked him to demonstrate his
powers, which the magician agreed. He asked Brunton to write a question on a
piece of paper and fold the paper as small as possible. Meanwhile, Mahmoud withdrew away and half
turned his back to him.

Brunton wrote the following
question, “Where did I live four years ago?” and folded the paper, as
instructed.

Mahmoud came back, and told Brunton
to hold the paper and the pencil tightly in his clenched fist. The magician
closed his eyes and went into what looked like a profound concentration. He opened his eyes and said quietly, “ The
question you asked was ‘Where did I live four years ago ?’” Brunton was
astonished.

This was a case of mind reading,
extraordinary!

Next, the Egyptian, ordered Brunton
to unfold the paper and examine it.

The paper revealed, under the
question, the name of the town where Brunton lived four years ago! Some unknown
hand had written the answer in pencil.

Brunton was amazed beyond measure,
because mind-reading could not provide the name of the town, and write it too,
on the tightly clenched paper in his fist. His pencil had remained in his fist
too.

He asked the magician to repeat it.
The Egyptian agreed.

This time Brunton wrote “What
journal did I edit 4 years ago”

Mahmoud closed his eyes, and concentrated.
He gave the correct answer.

He told Brunton to unfold the
paper.

The name of the journal he edited
four years ago was clumsily written with a pencil

For a third time he requested the
magician to repeat his demonstration. Mahmoud succeeded again.

Brunton was baffled beyond measure.
He thought of three possible explanations for the supernatural performance:
mind-reading, hypnotism, and conjuring. He rejected all three.

It could not be conjuring because
the pencil and paper came from Brunton, the paper never left his hands, and
questions were randomly selected by him, without any premeditation.

It could not be hypnotism because
Brunton knew the subject and would have recognized if somebody was trying to
influence him, and furthermore the questions and answers were still there on
the paper. Brunton finally came to the conclusion that the magician had read
his mind, and with some inexplicable magic written the answers

Brunton felt the presence of
invisible and eerie forces in the room (Brunton was a psychic).

“Can anybody in England do this?”
The Egyptian asked

He was compelled to admit that
nobody could do it under those test conditions.

Brunton requested him to explain
his methods, knowing full well that magicians and conjurers never reveal their
secrets. The magician declined

Brunton asked him to just tell the
broad outline of his feats, the theoretical side only.

Mahmoud mused over his query for a
while.

“I am willing to do that”

They met the next day. The
explanation was neither of the three that Brunton had considered and rejected. Mahmoud
told Brunton that he had invisible spirits under his control, and he was also a
thought reader. He spent several years to make the spirits obedient to him. He
had thirty spirits at his command which did his bidding. One of the spirits was
of his dead brother, who helped him. Most of the others were Jinns, native inhabitants of spirit
world, who never took a human body.

These spirits were proficient in
one task only. For instance the jinns,
who produced the pencil-written words on the paper, would have been quite
unable to ascertain his questions. Mahmoud tried to employ only good jinns, and not the evil ones, used by
African sorcerers. Because the evil ones were dangerous servants who would
sometimes turn on their master and kill him.

One had to know each spirit’s name.
The Egyptian could summon a spirit by concentrating on him, or writing his name
in Arabic on a paper. They would come instantaneously.

Brunton met his second magician in
Egypt. His name was kept secret by his wish. He was the most famous magician of
Egypt, or at least, Cairo. He lived in a large house in ancient quarters. Brunton
went to his house and met the magician who was around sixty. The magician was
very suspicious of Brunton. After several visits he became less reserved. He
was also an astrologer, and made a horoscope of Brunton (which Brunton did not
want)

One day he told Brunton to bring a
white, healthy, fowl, and he will put a jinn-spirit
at Brunton’s disposal! Brunton did not want it but the old man insisted.

Brunton returned three days later with a plump
white bird tucked under his arm.

The magician asked to release the
bird in the middle of the room. He then instructed Brunton to step over an
incense brazier, three times.

He drew a small square on a piece
of paper. and subdivided it into nine small squares. He next wrote either an
Arabic letter or a kabbalistic sign, in each of the nine squares in the
diagram. Then he started muttering a magical incantation with eyes fixed on the
fowl. Sometimes he would extend his hand and point a finger, as if he was
giving an order.

Brunton noticed that the fowl
started trembling.

The magician asked him to step over
the brazier three times, again. When he returned to the divan, he noticed that
the fowl was not looking at the magician any more, but had turned his eyes on
Brunton. He fixed his eyes at Brunton, and never changed.

Brunton observed a strange change in
the fowl, his breathing became labored. His beak opened with air-hunger.
Finally he collapsed and died.

The magician was happy at the
outcome. He said that it meant that the spirit had accepted his sacrifice. He
explained, that sometimes the fowl does not die, which means that the spirit
had not accepted that person.

Henceforth, the genie that
destroyed the life of that bird as a sign that he was ready to serve Brunton,
will work for his benefit.

Brunton was told to throw the dead
fowl, at the hour of midnight, in the Nile River, and as he threw the bird he
was supposed to make a wish. One day the genie will cause his wish to come
true.

The magician acknowledged that the
supremacy lies with Allah. The magicians use their art, but only Allah knows
everything. Final word lies with God.

The magician also said that the
secret is passed from teacher to pupil, and the pupil or master is not allowed
to reveal the secret to anybody else. The apprenticeship was hard and
dangerous. He had not accepted a single pupil. Eventually he was bound by the
laws that governed his fraternity to accept and teach somebody before his
death, but since he knew the exact date and year of his death, there was still
time left.

I have narrated the two cases of
black magic in blog 87 and 109. A practitioner of black magic tried to poison
and kill Indra Devi, and Shahab lived in a haunted house which was frequented
by the spirits of a woman and her murderer.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

121. Brunton, and control
over snakes and scorpions

During his travels in Egypt, Paul Brunton met Sheikh Moussa,
who had power over snakes and scorpions. Sheikh Moussa could smell a hidden
snake or scorpion. He could then command them to come out of their hiding places.
He would pick them, and make them docile. They would not bite him. The snakes
could not bite him with their poisonous fangs, but would, sometime, bite him
superficially on the skin. One species of scorpion (and some snakes) were
immune to his power. Sheikh Moussa had multiple layers of protection against
these creatures. First, he had a mystic power, transmitted from master to
disciple at initiation. Second, a public and secret invocation, which consisted
of certain phrases from Quran and magical incantations, uttered forcefully,
with adjurations. It was the main power, which was given to the pupil by his teacher
that forced these creatures to submit. Thirdly, he had a talisman which he wore
around his upper arm. The talisman had a piece of paper which had certain
Quranic verses and some magical spells written on it.

Sheikh Moussa told him that he belonged to an old Dervish
order, which specialized in handling poisonous snakes and scorpions.

Sheikh Moussa gave a demonstration of his power. He offered
to catch a snake. To obviate the possibility that the Sheikh had secretly
hidden a snake in some area, the area was selected by Brunton. They (thirty or
so villagers) all marched to that area. To show that he was not carrying a
snake on his person, Sheikh Moussa removed all his clothes, except the shirt
and socks. He stopped at a stone and said there was a scorpion underneath that
stone.

He started, loudly and continuously, a magical incantation
which also had Quranic verses in it. He emphatically ordered the scorpion to come
out. None came. He started the incantation and adjurations, again, in a louder
voice. Finally a big scorpion came out. He picked it in his unprotected hands.
Brunton examined it. Its sting was intact. Several times it will move its
sting, as if by a force of habit, but stopped, as if by a barrier, and did not
complete its motion of stinging. To further demonstrate his control over the
creature, he put the scorpion on the ground. He started walking towards the
debris as if to escape, when Sheikh Moussa ordered him to stop, and it stopped
at once.

Next, Sheikh Moussa declared that there was a snake under the
roots of a tree. He started again his magical incantation and exhortations.
After some minutes, no snake emerged. Sheikh Moussa got frustrated. He declared
that there really was a snake there. Finally, he kneeled, by the roots of the
tree, and still reciting his spells, thrust his hand in a hole, and brought out
a five foot long squirming cobra. After some tussle, he completed tamed the
snake. Then he released him in the dust and pointing his forefinger at him,
ordered him to lay his head in the palm of his hand.

The cobra stopped its hissing and laid his head in his palm,
like a child might rest its tired head upon its mother’s lap!

It was a sight Brunton had never witnessed before. Not even
in India where he had seen plenty of snakes and snake charmers

Brunton obtained a large table spoon and thrust it in the
serpent’s mouth. After repeated bites, he obtained a quantity of poison in the
spoon, one or two drops of which would have been sufficient to kill a man.

Soon, Brunton became the first European pupil (and second
ever pupil) of Sheikh Moussa. After a week of fasting and prayers, he was given
the “Word of power” (which was to be used mentally), and the magical
incantation. He was also given the talisman. After receiving all three, he had immunity,
against these creatures for two years.

Both master and pupil went over several field trips in the
desert and handled snakes and scorpions. Gradually, over weeks, Brunton became
quite proficient. He could grasp a poisonous snake and will it to go to sleep,
by giving it a mental command of “go to sleep”. He would also hold the talisman
in one hand at that time.

Brunton handled deadly cobras and poisonous vipers several
times, and even put them around his neck, yet they never once attacked him.

Once, in the old temple of Edfu, Brunton was crawling along
an extremely narrow, pitch dark tunnel, which had undisturbed dust of many
centuries. Suddenly, a monstrous yellow scorpion emerged from a crevice and
moved towards him. There was not enough room for Brunton to maneuver. He pointed
his forefinger towards the creature, and uttered the word of power, loudly, and
peremptorily ordered him to stop, with the utmost mental concentration and
strength he could muster.

The scorpion stopped dead still.

It remained in the same spot, transfixed, till Brunton
crawled back to safety with the light of his electric torch. For all he could
tell, the unfortunate scorpion may still be on the same spot, awaiting the
command of release.

The magical incantation is given in the book.

Despite all the powers, the immunity against snakes is not
absolute. Sheikh Moussa’s first pupil was his son. He died of a snake bite, on
his first solo field trip. His grandfather, died by a viper bite, after a life
time of immunity against snakes.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

120. Does hell
exist?

Years ago (probably twenty-five), somebody casually
remarked, “There is no hell, just heaven. God is kind and merciful; therefore,
there cannot be a hell”. That remark gnawed on my mind for years. The more I
thought, the more I was convinced that there cannot be a hell.

Few years ago, I came across the book; ‘Finding the joy
within you, by Sri Daya Mata’ and found
this story:

“Master (Swami
Yogananda) was once talking to a very dogmatic man. He said to Master, “Do you
not belief in hellfire and damnation?”

Guruji replied, “No, except that man creates a Hades right
in here and now. He makes out of this world and his own life a heaven or a
hell, depending upon his behavior…..”

The man was not convinced and kept on arguing. Master
changed the subject. After a few moments Guruji said:

“Isn’t it true that you have a son who is causing you great
suffering because he drinks and indulges in bad behavior………”

The man’s jaw dropped “How did you know? Yes this has been
the greatest sorrow of my life”

“Then may I make a suggestion”

“Yes”. The man was eager for a solution.

“All right take him out for a walk in the hills, and have
two trusted friends waiting there for you. They should pounce upon him and bind
him. Then let them build a huge roaring fire. Let them throw your son in the
fire”

The man was flabbergasted. “Are you mad to make such a suggestion?”

“Exactly so! Yet you ascribe such behavior to God, who
created you and instilled in you that love for your child. How dare you
attribute to Him feelings so callous and punitive that He will take all of His
children that have done wrong and cast them in eternal flames?”

Swami Ramdas (blog 82-85) writes:

“In
one place, a school master came for discussion. The schoolmaster was in favor
of Shuddhi movement (reconversion of
Muslims and Christians to Hinduism) while Ramdas was against it, as Ramdas
opposed every effort on the part of anybody to create differences in religious
faiths. That all faiths lead to the same goal is a most beautiful and
convincing truth. At the end the friend exceeded the limits of decent talk.

Next day at the same time, the friend came again. He could
scarcely talk, he could only whisper. His throat was choked up.

‘O Maharaj, he exclaimed, falling at the feet of Ramdas, “God
has punished your slave for using such rough words to you yesterday…..’

‘O friend, Ramdas is really sorry to hear this, but be
assured of this; God never punishes.
God is love and is always kind…………the so called evil is of our own making.’

At once, pulling Ramdas’s right hand the friend rubbed the
palm on his throat, and strange to say, his throat cleared and he began to talk
more clearly and in a few minutes he was alright!

‘Behold Maharaj, how powerful you are!”

‘You make a mistake, dear friend; Ramdas is a poor slave of
Ram, possessing no powers at all. Your faith alone has cured you, and nothing
else.”

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I should have added these visions of Swami Yogananda in my
account of him in blog 79-81; I am rectifying that mistake, because the two
visions are profound and unique.

Cosmic consciousness.
His Master struck him lightly on the chest and he had the vision of cosmic
consciousness. I am giving an abbreviated version; complete description is in
his autobiography (see the list). His body became motionless and still. His
breath was drawn out as if by a huge magnet. People in distant streets were
visible and moving. His ordinary vision was changed to spherical, he could see
on the sides and the back of his head. He saw a white cow that was leisurely
approaching. As she passed behind a brick wall, he could still see her. Master,
his body, the pillared courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and the
sunshine, occasionally violently vibrated. All objects in his vision tumbled
and vibrated. Everything in his vision finally became a luminescent sea.

He experienced
an oceanic joy. He realized that the Spirit of God was an exhaustless bliss. A
swelling glory in him enveloped towns, countries, continents, the earth, stars
and galaxies, and floating universes. The whole cosmos was gently luminous, and
resembled a lighted city at night, seen from a distance. On the farthest edges,
was an undiminished mellow radiance. It was indescribably subtle, unlike the
gross light which made the planetary picture.

The
divine dispersion of rays was from an Eternal Source blazing into galaxies,
transfigured with ineffable auras. He saw the creative beams condense into
constellations, then resolve into sheets of flame. Irradiating splendor issued
from his heart (nucleus) to every part of the universal structure.

Suddenly,
he came to his senses. His guru ( Sri Yukteswar ) was standing motionless
before him. “Don’t get over drunk with ecstasy. Let us sweep the floor”. He got
hold of a broom and started sweeping the floor. He realized that his master was
teaching him balanced living.

The guru
told him later, that it was the Spirit of God that sustained the universe. He
is transcendent and aloof in the uncreated void. Those who attain
Self-realization in this world live in similar twofold existence:
conscientiously performing their duties
in the world, and yet immersed in an inner beatitude.

This
Divine experience comes with a natural inevitability when the seeker is ready.
His intense craving begins to pull at God, with an irresistible force. The
magnetic ardor pulls the cosmic vision in the seeker’s range of consciousness.

Sri Yukteswar
taught him how to summon the blessed
experience at will, and also how to transmit it others, when their
intuitive channels were ready. He also told him that one may control the whole
universe, but find the God elusive still. Spiritual advancement is not be
measured by one’s display of outward powers, but solely by the depth of his
bliss during meditation.

Ever-new
joy is God. He is inexhaustible

A lesson, that he learnt, was that without controlling the
breath and the wandering thoughts, the Infinite as One Light cannot be
perceived. These two, are like storms, that lash the oceans of light into waves
of material forms, such as houses, trees, humans, and animals. As often as he
quieted these two natural impulses, he could visualize all the forms melting
into one luminous sea.

Body made of light.
One day, after writing a chapter of his autobiography, as he was sitting on the
bed in a lotus position, he looked at the ceiling. He saw that the ceiling was
dotted with mustard colored lights, scintillating and quivering. Innumerable
pencils of light merged into a shaft and fell on him.

His
physical body lost its grossness. He felt as if he was floating on the bed,
barely touching the bed. The body became weightless and moved to and fro. His
surrounding, the walls and furniture were as before, but the lights on the
ceiling had multiplied, and they hid the ceiling. He looked at his arms. He
could move them, but they were weightless.

A voice spoke to him, as if
it was coming from within the light. “This is the cosmic motion picture
mechanism, shedding its beams on the white screen of your bed sheets; it
creates a picture of your body. Behold
your body is nothing but light.” He understood that the divine reproduction
of his body was similar to the picture produced on a cinema screen, coming from
a booth.

This
vision lasted for a long time. He saw his body in the faintly lit bedroom.
Though he had many visions in his life, but none was ever more singular.

He spoke
entreatingly, “Divine light, please withdraw this humble body into Thyself;
even as Elijah was drawn up to heavens, in a chariot of flame”.

His
supplication was evidently startling. The beam disappeared. His body came back
to its original shape.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

118. Amma, Mufti Sahib

I have mentioned Amma
(literally, means mother) in blog 3, when a seeker dreamt about her. He was in
great distress at that time. She consoled and guided him in that dream to a
centuries old room. She had died sometimes earlier.

One day the
seeker saw, in the graveyard adjacent to the tomb of Mian Mir, a mad woman
sitting under a tree. Nobody would go near her because she would throw stones
on anybody who tried to come near her. Something in her struck the seeker. The
seeker was endowed with this gift of recognizing holy persons, and holy persons
recognize something in the seeker and allowed him to have their company. Her
clothes were clean, an oddity in a mad person. He tried to approach her, but
had to retreat, in the face of stones and volley of angry words. He tried to go
near her another day. The woman said, “It is you again” and threw a stone. The
seeker sat down behind a grave, far from the reach of stones. The woman said
“so you are afraid of stones, alright, you can come near, I won’t hit you”.
After that the seeker would visit her every 1-2 weeks. He noticed that during
sitting or sleeping, she would always keep her face towards Mecca, where Kaaba, the holiest site of Islam, is
located.

She had
meager belongings. It included a kaffan
(burial cloth) for herself. She told the seeker that it had been washed with aab-a-zamzam (water of zamzam well, located in Kaaba)

One day
it was very hot. The seeker asked her whether he should bring water for her. She
said, “Yes, bring it from the faucet”. The
seeker brought a glass of water. She drank some water, and then gave the glass
to the seeker and said; “you drink too”.
The seeker also drank. In mysticism, it is considered a great gift, if a
saint offers you something to eat, or his own clothes or shoes

One day,
after amma’s death, the Qalander who
trained the seeker, sarcastically said to the seeker, “even amma’s water failed to transform you”.
How did he know the incident? The seeker had not told him. This is a proof that
amma was a spiritually exalted person
and not a mere mad woman

One day the
seeker found her deathly sick. It was very cold. She was lying under the tree
without any cover. The seeker went home and brought a blanket. Amma refused to
use it, saying “God will provide her”. The seeker brought a packet of biscuits.
She threw the packet away, saying something like, “My Allah will give me
biscuits, if He wants to”. The seeker informed the Mufti Sahib (mentioned below)
that the amma was dying. Later that
night Mufti Sahib had a dream in which he was told to bury her under the same
tree where she lived, and wrap her in the kaffan,
she had carried on her head for many a miles. Her grave is located under
that tree.

A man
kept vigil the night she was dying. The seeker asked him how he was related to
the mother. The man said that some years ago, as a boy, he got paralyzed. Amma
during her wandering happened to visit his village. His elder brother carried
him to the mother. Amma told his brother to leave the boy, overnight, with her.
She gave him gur (brown sugar candy).
The strength in his legs came back gradually, and in a few weeks they came
close to normal. After that incident he lost interest in the world, and with
her permission, followed mother in her wanderings. He was not allowed to stay
with her at night or where she camped. Eventually amma arrived in Lahore. She liked the tomb of the famous saint,
Mian Mir. There was running water in the faucets for pilgrims. Free food was
distributed, and there was a hundreds of year old graveyard, where there was
solitude and shade. He would visit mother every day or two. Mother would give
him money to buy her food and other provisions.

I have
mentioned in blog 64 of a person who had been wandering for 25 years in his
spiritual quest. His guide brought him to the mother’s grave and told him the
story of mother. The wanderer expressed the desire to do meditation at the
grave. As I remember, he meditated over there for 2-3 days. The guide asked him
what was happening. He replied amma’s
asthan (a Hindi word for site) is showing him worlds.

The
proof of mother’s greatness is evident by these incidents: her helping the
seeker as recited in blog 3, Qalander acknowledging her spirituality in the
leftover water incident, Mufti Sahib having a dream directing him what to do
with her dead body, her curing the paralysis of the boy, the experience of the
25 years wanderer when he meditated on her asthan
, and finally the old man’s (mentioned in blog 117) desire to visit her grave.

Mufti Sahib. I have mentioned Mufti sahib, above, in
my foreword to book 2, (blog 53), and in blog 112. He was posted, by
government, as the mufti (religious scholar) at the shrine of Mian Mir, the
famous sufi saint. As such, he led
the Friday prayers.

Mufti sahib was a simple, humble man. He was a poor man. The
government salary barely met his, and his family’s, needs. I have narrated in
blog 112, the two incidents, when his tearful prayer to feed the guests, and to
visit his family at Eid, were instantly answered by God. Mufti sahib himself
used to say that God listened to him. When, for the first time, he visited
Kaaba (the holiest site in Islam) he did not find in himself the courage to
enter the holy building (house of Allah), and sat outside for a week or two. He
prayed to God “make me Yours”

When I asked Mufti sahib, through an intermediary, to look
into my affairs and see what the reason for my lack of spiritual progress was. He
gave the answer, “everybody, eventually, gets it, some early and others late. He
is doing alright”. At another time, I conveyed to him, that I am not getting
the Lms (touch of God). I thought,
that Mufti sahib may find it blasphemous (in orthodox Islam it is an evil
thought, because God and man cannot come physically close). But no, according to
the intermediary, the Mufti sahib went into almost an ecstasy, and exclaimed, Lms! Lms!

He had the power to
alleviate common sufferings like headache, scorpion bite, etc, by performing dum on the sick person. The dum, is an Islamic spiritual process,
bestowed to an authorized person, by his murshed.
Certain Quranic verses are recited. The relief of sickness is temporary. A person
cannot perform a dum on himself. Mufti
sahib would make his daily round of the sick and needy, and do dum, if needed. He did it for free.

As an
example of the healing power, here is an account by Brunton, in his book, ‘a search in secret Egypt’: “Among the other activities of……..was the practice of
healing. One day I watched a demonstration. A man came to him with rheumatic
pains in the left thigh. He gently stroked the latter for a minute, recited a
prayer from the Quran, for another minute, and told his patient that the pain
would soon go………..There was certainly a diminution of the pain, although it was
difficult for me to ascertain whether this was a permanent relief or a temporary
one”. Sheikh Abu Shrump bestowed two powers
to Brunton, one over evil genii, and the other a healing power. The Sheikh got
these powers from his ancestors, and traced it back to the holy prophet
Muhammad pbuh. Another Sheikh ( Moussa) gave Brunton power over snakes and
scorpions ( he used this power many times)

Mufti
sahib’s superior, a petty Govt. official, ordered Mufti sahib to charge people
for dum, and to share the money with
him. Mufti sahib refused. He said, “I will not make Quran a source of income”. The
officer was not mollified. He received a transfer order to another shrine at
Pakputtan.

An influential
person asked Mufti sahib that should he approach some officials to get the
order cancelled. Mufti sahib said “No, my days in Lahore, are now complete”